Yearning for escape and adventure, hot-tempered Max runs away from home and sails to an island of his imagination filled with wild beasts that take him in as their king. The film is Spike Jonez’s adaptation of the late Maurice Sendak’s children’s book from 1963.

13th, 14th, 15th January at 7pm

Pirates of Salé

Merieme Addou, Rosa Rogers (2014)

79’ | Arabic, French | Morocco, France, UK | Documentary | G

Cirque Shems’y sits on the edge of one of Morocco’s poorest slums, and hundreds of teenagers come to audition each year, desperately hoping for a new future in the circus. The handful who are accepted embark on a tough journey of transformation, learning to live independently, express themselves, challenge convention, and embrace a totally alien concept: artistic freedom.

20th, 21st, 22nd January at 7pm

Rags and Tatters

Ahmad Abdalla (2013)

97’ | Arabic | Egypt | Drama | PG

In one of the most extraordinary nights in the history of Egypt, the prisons were suddenly opened, leaving thousands of prisoners wandering the desert. Among them was one man trying to find his way in a city that is rapidly changing for good.

27th, 28th, 29th January at 7pm

Man Push Cart

Ramin Bahrani (2005)

87’ | English, Urdu | USA | Drama | PG

Every night while the city sleeps, Ahmad, a Pakistani immigrant, struggles to drag his heavy cart along the streets of New York to his corner in Midtown Manhattan. And every morning, from inside his cart he sells coffee and donuts to a city he cannot call his own.

He is the worker found on every street corner in every city. He is a man who wonders if he will ever escape his fate. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the London Film Festival.